E’relim - the plural of Ariel - is a curious word that shows up just once in the Bible, found in today’s chapter, without real clarity as to what these creatures are and why this may matter.
The prophet Isaiah keeps projecting visions unto the future, wavering between the horrors and the hope, a luminous life and a terrible death. In one of the fragments of these visions he describes what have been identified as a type of angels, or warriors, or lions - or just the people of the holy city that has so many names. It doesn’t help of course that more recently the name Ariel has been identified in popular culture as the name of a famous mermaid.
The context is the future of desolation - Zion’s roads will be empty, the harvest will be hollow, the forests will be gone.
Erelim -“Mighty ones” has also been translated as ‘valiant ones’, ‘Arielites’, ‘The men of Ariel’ or ’the Angels of Ariel’. The word uses her for ‘ambassadors’ or ‘messengers’ is actually the Hebrew’ Malachim - often used to describe angels as messengers of the divine. So it’s not surprising that interpreters have identified both these categories with celestial beings.
A curious Talmudic legend describes the tension between mortals and angels each time a person dies - the E’relim defeat the Matzokim - the ones on earth - and prevail - death is inevitable. Echoes of this battle can be found in many modern death announcements in the Ultra Orthodox world, where these posters wail from the walls each time a prominent leader or teacher dies: The E’relim have won again!
But the Greek and Aramaic translations veer away from the mythic, choosing to translate this word as two words that are missing a space - Ereh La’hem — seen from God’s point of view, this describes the people calling out to heaven with their pleas for help.
Ariel is one of the names of Jerusalem, as is Shalem - the ancient Semitic word that may have been associated with the Canaanite God of Sunset and death - Shalem. The oldest name of Jerusalem may be derived from his long forgotten name. So whether the lions of Jerusalem are howling here, or angels or mermaids or people in despair - both Ariel and Shalem remind us, as they may have to the people hearing Isaiah calling out in the streets — that a battle is coming - for each of us, and for society as a whole - some inevitable outcomes, like death, are waiting to wail it out.
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I always though Shalem had the same shoresh as shalom